Sunday, January 22, 2012

The Knower, Known and Knowing

The supreme is everywhere and in everything. It is the something that is closest to you and too far away from you too. Since it is subtle, you cannot comprehend it, though it is so close to you.

If at all there is anything you are striving hard to know in this world, it is this supreme alone that you need to know. Pursuit of all other knowledge is futile. Though it is uniformly present in everything, it appears as if it is divided in all inanimate and animate objects. If you are searching through the space in the night’s sky for the brightest of stars, you are never going to find it because the brightest of all the brightest stars is the supreme presence and that is within you and everyone else.That supreme is the knowledge with which we try to understand, the process of knowing and the thing to be known too. Sri Krishna tells Arjuna that the truth of the field of knowledge, knowing of that field and the object that is worth knowing ultimately has been taught and the devotee who knows this reaches that truth eventually. Knowledge of the truth is a sure way to reach that truth, because the knowledge, knowing and the knower here are only the truth. We often have this question, how did this world begin? When did people come? When did we begin feeling with our emotions- happiness or sadness? The Bhagavad Gita answers this question. When? There is no scope for this question because, it has always been existing Anadi- without a beginning and an end. What has been existing? The Purusha, a non-moving expanse which is the seed of all creation, and Prakriti, the nature that has been created out of this Purusha, have ever been there. All the modifications of the thoughts and the qualities that make nature were born out of this Prakriti. While Prakriti brings forth this world of cause and effect, the individual soul experiences the joys and sorrows that emerge out fo it.

The Puusha or the absolute experience teams up with the Prakriti, experiences the objects of nature that are created by the three qualities of Prakrit: Satwa, the quietude; Rajas, the dynamism; and Tamas, the inertia. What is present as the supreme being in this universe is also present in the individual entity. That supreme in you and me is the witness of all events, the guiding light that throws light on our choices, thoughts, words and actions and the one which sustains everything and experiences too. One who is aware of this Purusha, the supreme spirit, and Prakriti and the Three Gunas, is not born again even though he/she has to perform actions in this world.